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Heartbroken Martin and Linda Turner are marking a year since the death of their daughter Kelly.
The 17-year-old, from Dover, succumbed to an extremely rare teenage cancer called desmoplastic small round cell tumours (DSRCT).
Over the previous year, people had got behind the family’s campaign to raise £1 million to give her lifesaving treatment in America.
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But Kelly’s condition worsened and she was rushed to hospital when she became mortally ill at the end of last October.
She died at the Royal Marsden Hospital at 2.45am on November 6.
Mr Turner, 63, said: “On November 6, we will visit the grave but then bury our heads in the sand and keep a low profile.
"Wherever we go, we have reminders of Kelly.
“The last year has been horrendous and I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since she passed away.”
Mrs Turner, 53, said: “We don’t need to visit the grave to remember her but it would be nice to put some flowers on her plaque.
"It is the lead-up to the anniversary that is difficult. We had spent two years trying to save her.”
Kelly was diagnosed with DSRCT in October 2015.
Mr Turner said: “The doctors told us that she had two years to live and they were not wrong.
"They were only a month out. I wish they were wrong.
“She had always wanted to turn 18. Now we don’t look forward to Christmas. I’d rather it didn’t happen.
“We have so many memories of Kelly at Christmas, such as how delighted she was to getting her art material as a present.”
The Turners had already described their first Christmas without Kelly as “dreadful.”
Mr Turner said: “Linda and I can still joke as we walk along the street but then someone comes up to us and says ‘how are you, it must be terrible’ and that brings you down.
“But we know people mean well and it’s better than people crossing the street because they don’t feel able to talk to us about it.
"We are grateful for all the public support we have had.”
The couple have maintained their closeness in the face of their ordeal but say all three had been exceptionally close.
Mr Turner said; “We were hardly ever separated. It was only once when Kelly went on a school trip to France.
"We thought at the time that was unbearable.”
Kelly had regularly been given chemotherapy at the Marsden, a specialist cancer hospital in south London.
Mr Turner said: “I remember in mid-2017 we saw a dad with a tiny toddler as a patient.
"The last year has been horrendous and I can't believe it's been a whole year since she passed away" - Martin Turner
“Kelly said ‘well, at least I got to be 17’. There were a lot of tears at that moment.
“In her last week at the Marsden she said: 'Dad, I'm going to die aren't I'"?
After Kelly died, Martin and Linda had the unbearable journey of driving home without her.
Mr Turner said: “That was our worst trip ever. We were even stuck on the M25 for three hours and ironically the vehicle in front of us was a Macmillan Cancer support vehicle.”
Another major blow for the couple happened this summer when Mr Turner spent a total of 10 weeks in hospital, between June and August, suffering from endocarditis.
This is is an infection of the endocardium, the inner lining of the heart chambers and heart valves.
It is a life-threatening condition with studies reporting an in-hospital death rate of 15 to 20%.
Mr Turner was treated with antibiotics at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and is now recovering, although he is still off sick from work.
He now believes his own immense grief for Kelly was a contributory factor to his illness.
On October 2 this year, Kelly was posthumously rewarded by her last school, Astor College, at its speech day.
It gave the couple pain as well as pride.
Mr Turner said: “That was incredibly hard. We saw these kids go on stage to get their awards with their parents applauding them and Kelly should have been there to collect hers.”
The accolade was the Ronnie Philpott Award for Services to the Community, awarded for her courage in the face of her illness and ability to inspire other young people.
The couple are Christians, as Kelly was, and say their faith has given them some comfort.
Mrs Turner said: “I am convinced that I’m going to see Kelly again when it’s my time to go.”
They now want to save others from the type of cancer Kelly had and on New Year’s Day set up the Kelly Turner Foundation.
It supports the Institute of Cancer Research at the Marsden in its quest to find a chemotherapy, and ultimately full cure, for DSRCT.
The money originally donated to provide Kelly with specialist treatment in America has been transferred for this.
The amount raised since the campaign began in June 2016 stood at exactly £632,881 last week Oct 24.
The target remains £1 million, the original sum needed to save Kelly.
Mr Turner said: “It is too late for Kelly but we are going to keep raising money to save other teenage lives.”
Fundraising events continue such as a community café at St Mary’s Church in Dover on the second Saturday of every month.
Proceeds are split between the Kelly Turner Foundation and helping the homeless.
Meanwhile, the full £1,500 needed for a memorial bench for Kelly has been raised.
The Turners are negotiating with Dover Harbour Board over where to place the bench.
Kelly’s cause had so taken the public’s heart that more than £600,000 had been raised by the time she died.
Hollywood star James McAvoy gave £50,000 to her appeal in February 2017 after he met her at the Marsden.
Kelly met and had support from a number of other celebrities including singer Bryan Adams and Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs.
Local supporter John Ashman raised a total £20,000.
Kelly needed treatment at the world specialist Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Kelly Patricia Turner was born on March 24, 2000 and attended Charlton Primary School and St Edmund’s RC in Dover.
Her illness made her lose schooling time so she joined the sixth form at Astor in September 2017, a year later than normally expected.
Kelly had to take 28 rounds of sarcoma chemotherapy.
Despite this she achieved 10 GCSE passes in the summer of 2017.
At her funeral, on November 24, a cavalcade of motorcycles and scooters escorted the hearse to St Mary’s the Virgin Church in Cannon Street, Dover, and then to Barham Crematorium for a private service.
Her ashes were buried in the churchyard on March 24, on what would have been her 18th birthday.
